Grid computing is an emerging computing model that provides the ability to perform higher throughput computing by taking advantage of many networked computers to model a virtual computer architecture that is able to distribute process execution across a parallel infrastructure. Grids use the resources of many separate computers connected by a network, e.g., the Internet) to solve large-scale computation problems. Grids provide the ability to perform computations on large data sets, by breaking the data sets down into many smaller operations, or provide the ability to perform many more computations at once than would be possible on a signal computer, by modeling a parallel division of labor between processes. In a conventional environment, resource allocation in a grid computer network is done in accordance with one or more Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
A Grid computing environment is created to address large scale resource needs. The use of recourses, e.g., CPU cycles, disk storage, software programs, peripherals, etc., is usually characterized by the resources' availability outside the context of the local administrative domain. This external provisioning approach entails creating a new administrative domain referred to as a Virtual organization with a distinct and separate set of administrative policies.
One characteristic that currently distinguishes grid computing networks from distributed computing is the abstraction of a distributed resource into a grid resource. One result of abstraction is that it allows resource substitution to be more easily accomplished. Some of the overhead associated with this flexibility is reflected in the temporal latency associated with the access of a grid resource.
As grid computing networks increase in the number of elements utilized and the allocation of element resources, there is a need in the industry for providing a method of modeling Grid computing for determining performance and allocating resources and further for analyzing the network to determine root-cause failures and impacts of such failures.